The World War II Blogathon – Anne Frank Remembered (1995)

This post is part of The World War II Blogathon being hosted by Maddy of Maddy Loves Her Classic Films and Jay of Cinema Essentials.

Tnx for letting me participate!

“I only got to know my daughter really through the diary.” – Otto Frank

Number of Times Seen – 1 (1 Sep 2019)

Brief Synopsis – Documentary about the life of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who wrote a diary while she and her family hid from the Nazis during Wold War II in Amsterdam.

My Take on it – This is a film that I’ve wanted to watch for years yet never had the right opportunity to do so until now.

I have known the story of Anne Frank’s life and hiding since it is such a powerful story on its own, but this film allows us the chance to see who she really was as a person and not just as the personification of the girl made posthumously famous by her diary.

This film is filled with lots of interviews with people who knew Frank and her family before, during and after World War II and are able to give us so much insight into her personality.

The stories told by these people help make these characters come to life before out eyes just by listen to their riveting stories.

The film also has a lot of archival footage of the war years and even a moving picture of Anne who was caught on film once.

The archival interview with Anne’s father who passed away a decade or so before this documentary also gives us so much insight into her life both before and during the difficult days of World War II.

The stories that these people tell are really fascinating and they help make these people and events even more tangible to believe how real they were.

This film was made 50 years after the end of World War II, yet they were able to speak with some of the people involved in this story who were still alive at the time and the ability to capture their words on film is a great kind of testament to memorialize their memories since none of them are still around today to tell their stories.

This film won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and was quite deserving of that accolade because its quite powerful to watch unfold from start to finish.

Bottom Line – Such an amazing documentary that manages to capture the truth personality behind the most famous diary written during the Holocaust.  The interviews with friends and family of Frank and her neighbors is so fascinating to listen to because they help make these people come to life before our very eyes. The archive footage of Anne’s father also shed so much light on the story of their hideaway from the Germans and the aftermath of their lives after being caught. The film does an amazing job making these people tangible through the stories told by the same people who lives through similar ordeals yet also had their lives touched by Anne and her family. The most fascinating thing about this film is being able to “meet” some of the real people connected to the story and memorialize their words while they were still alive even 50 years after the events of the actual story which obviously is no longer something that is possible to chronicle. Very deserving of its Oscar for Best Documentary feature. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank (1929-1945) was a German-Jewish girl from Frankfurt. She moved to the Netherlands in 1934, when only 5-years-old. She spend most of her life in Amsterdam. Anne was formally stripped of her German citizenship in 1941, and was never granted Dutch citizenship. For the last years of her life, Anne was legally stateless. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10)

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